


Saint Damien Sees All

by FluffyLlamacorn



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: (indirect?) spoilers for Battle at World's End part 4, Character Study, Gen, M/M, Saint Damien ships it, divine intervention, i guess?, more a speculation of how time works than shippy, second citadel, speculative world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 03:25:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18023852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyLlamacorn/pseuds/FluffyLlamacorn
Summary: The Second Citadel is in danger. Saint Damien considers the future as he moves Sir Damien to intercept the lizard.





	Saint Damien Sees All

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Ernmark's speculation about Saint Damien not just approving of the bouquet ot3, but actively having been a part of why it happened (https://ernmark.tumblr.com/post/183241966560/all-this-time-sir-damien-has-asked-why-saint), but with my own twist based on how I like fate and future and stuff like that to work in stories.

The Second Citadel is in danger. The monsters are only weeks from unleashing their new weapon if all goes according to their plans and their master architect will soon make his way to the citadel to get the last ingredient he needs.

Saint Damien sees all this and decides to finally make his move.

He sees the lizard, his plan and his task. He sees the weapon, the monster growing in its cocoon, waiting to wreck devastation. He sees so many of the paths the future can take, sees so many ways the Second Citadel and all its inhabitants can remain unaware of the danger until far too late. He sees the lizard’s stealth, how easily he will be able to accomplish his goal without being discovered if the guard will slack for even a moment. He sees almost no ways for the humans to discover the danger in time if the lizard gets away.

Saint Damien sees all this and finally decides on his move.

He has a Chosen in the Second Citadel. Sir Damien the Pious, tied for best knight in the entire kingdom. Saint Damien has known from the moment he was born that here was a believer who would one day change the world, whose mere presence would bring in the next age of human-monster relations after the centuries of the current, unstable situation. Having watched him grow, Saint Damien trusts the age he will bring about will be a good one.

Saint Damien sees Sir Damien, walking through the citadel, starting a trek down from a tower, and chatting with his best rival about their tie and their next mission in the Caves of Discord. They pass the female knight, who scoffs. Sir Damien had scorned her with his words recently. She looks back out of the corner of her eye, anger churning, barely contained by a lid she doesn’t completely understand why she has built.

Saint Damien sees all this and finally makes his move.

It’s easy and simple, precise in its touch and all reaching in its scope.

Saint Damien reaches out and loosens one of the locks to the lid on Sir Caroline’s anger. For a second her self-restraint relaxes and as she questions yet again why this sexist oaf should be rewarded with yet another mission that does nothing but keep him tied for best while it could redefine her career, she notices how distracted he is as he’s walking down to the stairs and concludes he shouldn’t be assigned that mission. She turns, steps forward and gives a push, light enough that he’ll never be able to prove for good it even happened, but strong enough to send him tumbling down five flights of stairs.

Then the second is over and she wonders why she did it. She has too much pride to regret it for even a moment and Saint Damien sees how much she will gain from joining the mission, her otherwise impossible promotion, and knows she never will. He still leaves her with a sliver of a blessing so the moment can never be used against her. She does not deserve the consequences of his action to haunt her if they turn out to be bad.

Saint Damien sees that Sir Damien is helped to the infirmary and knows what will happen from there. Much too impatient to wait for his broken leg to heal, he will make sure he gets a task as soon as possible and the most important anyone would entrust a man with a broken leg will be to stand watch in the queen’s room, a room that will presumably not be disturbed during the festival. Sir Damien will be the guard waiting for the lizard and will be able notice him. From there the outcome is less certain.

Saint Damien sees a battle and banter. He sees many different strategies leading to many different outcomes, some an immediate victory to the battle at hand, some that can lead to a later victory to the incoming war and some that cannot lead to either.

Time is not a line. The future is not certain. Every choice has a consequence and every consequence affects the future. Depending on the choices taken, the future will take a different shape. If time is a river, the river never stops branching. Saint Damien can see the entire river system at once, but the mortal world travels down the river in a boat at a certain pace and it’s impossible to tell for certain which path it will take before it happens. Some paths are certain to assume – Sir Damien’s stubbornness means he will never even consider the paths that include giving up – but in this crossroad of time, every single action, spoken word or thought can determine the future of the world.

So, apparently, can feelings. Saint Damien watches as Sir Damien lets the lizard go from their first duel and then the lizard returns the favor in their second duel. This attraction, unheard of since the first citadel hundreds of years ago, had been among the paths Saint Damien had seen, but one he had taken for granted as unlikely. Sir Damien hands over the crucial ingredient the lizard desires, but both speak more words than intended and feel a connection between their hearts that forces the lizard to stay and continue the encounter. Saint Damien does not need to see the current branch of rivers to know nothing has been decided yet.

All godly eyes are peeled to the Second Citadel and Fort Terminus as the future of civilization is negotiated between more people and forces than anyone wants to count, but Saint Damien’s gaze is focused especially on his Chosen knight, the lizard and the herbalist who soon reenters the equation, this time for the lizard as well. The mortal world is suddenly moving so quickly, but still much too slowly for one used to godly existence. Every second, thousands of people are acting and reacting and together choosing the future, but these three people will be the ones to lead the next age into existence. Saint Damien is certain of it. But first they need the world to survive long enough to reach it.

Saint Damien watches, waiting with tranquility for the next time he needs to make a move, ready to help them make the future happen.


End file.
